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Back to topGiacometti – Nauman: Kat. Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (Paperback)
Description
Two artists, two generations, of rather differing provenance
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is dedicating a comprehensive exhibition to the surprising and hitherto largely overlooked connections in the work by Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) and Bruce Nauman (* 1941). Drawings, photographs, videos, sculptures and large-scale installations by the US multimedia artist will enter into an exciting dialogue with selected sculptures and paintings by the Swiss sculptor. Both artists’ oeuvre revolves primarily around the image of man and the human condition; with reduced means of representation, they’re both looking to explore fundamental existential questions. The shattering directness of the works of art presents the viewer with a lasting challenge. Giacometti and Nauman share a procedural approach as well as subjects, such as the representation of emptiness, the relationship between figure and space, and the fragmented body. In a thematically landscaped layout, the exhibition brings together about 70 works, including numerous major works by both artists. The outcome of this juxtaposition is by no means foregone: Giacometti emerges as a pioneer of key developments in art after 1960, regaining his original radicalism, while Nauman’s outstanding importance as a sculptor becomes apparent, achieving an alternative historical significance. The exhibition does not endeavor to confirm or even endorse influences and overarching theories, but rather expands our perception of the work of two outstanding representatives of 20th and 21st century art.
Exhibition:
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 28/10/2016–22/01/2017
About the Author
Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. With his extremly tall and slender figurines he created after World War II he gave space to questions of human condition as well as phenomenological and existential debates. His work is a permanent guest for solo shows and thematically exhibitions, a list would give a lot of pages. His work is in the US in public collections amongst others of Albright-Knox Art Gallery Buffalo, Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Museum of Arts Pittsburgh, Detroit Institute of Arts, Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Washington DC, J. Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Guggenheim Museum New York.
Bruce Nauman, born 1941, is living near Galisteo, New Mexico, his practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture and neon, photography, video, drawing and printmaking, film and performance. Since the mid-1980s he is concentrating his work on sculpture and video and developed disturbing psychological and physical themes incorporating images of animals and human body parts, depicting sadistic allusions to games and torture together with themes of surveillance. His work has been included in documenta 1968, 1972, 1977, and 1992, at the Venice Biennale 1978, 1980, 1999, 2005, and 2007, also at Whiteny Biennial 1977, 1985, 1987, 1991, and 1997. Exhibitions with his works are uncountable, solo shows took place amongst others 2002 at Dia Art Foundation New York, 2004 Tate Modern London, 2006 Milwaukee Art Museum, 2007 Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.